Arrived at the International Christian Ministries Seminary, Kitale, Kenya, at 8:00 p.m. following an 8-hour auto trip over mostly good roads—with three or four notable exceptions: whole trucks could get swallowed by the potholes!—from Nairobi.  Got to the Mennonite Guest House last night at 11:00 p.m.  The askari (guard) was waiting for us and let us in to our room.  Small with a shared bath but very functional.  The Guest House is very nice and the grounds beautiful.  Our two checked bags did not make the British Airways flight into Nairobi last night but they did arrive on the early flight this morning.  For breakfast, sat with a lady physician (family practice) from Indiana who has lived in Tanzania since 1982.  Ester is picking up two of her children from Rift Valley Academy, an hour’s drive north of Nairobi, for school break on Thursday.  Her husband is Tanzanian and they met at Goshen College in Indiana.  Their oldest son is at Wake Forest.  After breakfast, drove back out to the airport to collect our bags and then back to the MGH where we transferred to our driver, Machatie.

Nairobi has been cleaned up considerably since our last visit in 2005.  I even saw two women with pointed sticks picking up trash along the highway in the city.  Trees and bushes being planted in the medians.  Traffic is awful but many new buildings and businesses especially visible coming from the airport into downtown.  This morning’s paper said Kenyan economic growth last year was 6%!  Very commendable but you don’t see any impact once you leave the capital.  The new American Ambassador was quoted as saying Kenya has made good progress but still needs to fight against corruption, security uncertainty, and tribalism.  I agree.

We’ve made the drive several times before from Nairobi to Kitale but never has it been this green.  Usually we are here in the “dry” season and this is supposed to be it now.  The rainy season normally ended weeks ago but they have been having torrential rains for over a month and today was no exception.  It rained most of our ride up and has been raining steadily since we arrived in Kitale.  (Global warming anyone?)  We are told that many people in the northern part of the country and on the coast (Mombassa) have been displaced due to massive flooding.  I saw pictures yesterday of buildings collapsed from water in Mombassa.  Farmers cannot harvest their crops (maize, wheat) due to the wet fields.  We were first directed off the main highway just south of Naivasha where the road had been terrible.  Our detour took us on a parallel track below the new roadbed.  I was impressed by the work being done and it looks like maybe this surface will hold up to the very heavy vehicle traffic, especially the huge trucks, that pack this main highway.  We detoured two other times to accommodate road work.  It was encouraging to see some major repair being done on the roads.

Besides the beautiful green countryside we experienced rain and fog as the highway climbed the escarpment above the Great Rift Valley.  Occasional glimpses of the valley floor through the clouds and fog were spectacular!  Impressions: people walking beside the road (where are they going?), people sitting and staring at nothing (one young woman, modestly dressed, was sitting all alone on top of a fence pole in her long skirt and just watching the traffic), people asleep in the open in fields, crazy “Matatu” drivers (one ran his Toyota minivan—13 passengers max—yeah, right!—off the road into a ditch right in front of us!), people riding on the edge of the highway on bikes at night with no lights or reflectors, school children in matching uniforms with and without shoes, cattle (and small herds of sheep or goats) grazing next to the road usually overseen by a young child, people laughing, roadside markets for fresh vegetables and fruits jammed with people even after dark.

Lessons learned about baggage: (1) plan for the worst scenario; and (2) don’t believe customer service.  Continental charged us $50 for overweight bags.  We only had two checked bags between us that I’d been told by the airlines could weigh up to 70 lbs each since we were traveling internationally and our bags were checked all the way through from Asheville to Nairobi.  Ours were 58 and 61 lbs.  Continental’s limit is 50 lbs and would not budge!  We had to check our carry-on bags in London as they limited us to only one carry-on (brief case/back pack).  I told them that I’d been advised by BA Customer Service that we could take a carry-on plus a brief case/back pack, but to no avail.  Those two bags did make our flight, however, while the larger bags did not.                                         [Back to Top]

Yesterday was Thanksgiving Day in the States.  We celebrated in Kenya with an evening meal of ugali (a solid, maize-based type of grits), sakumawiki (greens), and cabbage and were thankful for it.  LOTS of rain!  It rained most of the day and all night and was very cold.  Today the sun was out this morning and the weather beautiful through lunch.  Right now (2:00 p.m.) it is raining very hard.

This was the first day of class.  I have 21 students from Kenya, Tanzania, Sudan, Somalia, and Uganda.  They are pastors, youth pastors and African missionaries from the Presbyterian Church of East Africa, the African Inland Church and several other denominations.  Ages range from the 20’s to the 60’s including one bishop.  This may be the smartest group I have had in class, including my American students.  (The testimony at right is from a former Muslim and his walk of faith.)

I arrived 20 minutes before start time of 8:00 a.m. and the students were already there and listening to a short message from one of the female students.  She then led us in worship and prayer.  Meanwhile, I was setting up my projector and laptop to discover that my projector bulb was nonfunctional.  I had been forced to put my projector in my checked baggage due to the restrictions on carry-on baggage and the bulb did not survive the trip.  Naturally, I did not have a spare ($300-$400).  We used a little African ingenuity and rigged up a 17” computer monitor as my display and proceeded on.  Later, another projector was located.

We have been happy to see several of my former students who are on campus taking other classes.  One was helping to serve lunch today (beans and rice) and when I kidded him about his demonstrating servanthood, he responded, “You taught me that.  See what you’ve done!”  Vitalis is one of the last to finish from my first class here in 2004.  That is the class that had a vision for a “Prayer Tower” on the campus here in Kitale where students could gather early in the morning and late at night to pray in the spirit.  We were delighted to see the vision become reality with the new building completed and functioning as envisioned with funds raised entirely by the students.

The chaplain here has invited us to his church on Sunday, lunch afterwards, and a tour of his new land and home.  It is a new church and the service will be entirely in Swahili so he will translate as I give a message.  We would appreciate your prayers.             [Back to Top]

Abdi Ahmed Testimony

As it is Saturday, we did not have chapel today and finished at noon rather than 1:00 p.m.  Excellent discussion on how to discipline church leaders who have committed sins made public and how, or if, to restore them to positions of leadership.  Three new students have joined so we are up to 24.  I discovered that we have several bishops including Elijah from Sudan and Enoch, a Kenyan Quaker.  His (Enoch’s) comment at lunch today was that while his church is dying in America it is growing in Africa.  I responded that that was not only true of his church but several other denominations in America.

We stayed in the dining hall after supper last night (ugali, wiki, and cabbage) and talked with the students for an hour or so.  Elijah, from Southern Sudan, had an amazing story of persecution from the government (he has several bullet wounds) while remaining faithful to the Gospel.  He oversees several churches in his country.  [Click on the mic in the right column to hear his testimony.]   Another student, William, is a prison chaplain.  He told me that only recently the police leadership has recognized the importance of Christianity to restore and convert criminals.  He is equipping police officers to care for the spiritual needs of those arrested for suspected crimes as well as their physical needs.  This is a radical change from just 2-3 years ago.

When we were here last year, a donor from Florida offered to set up a radio station here at the seminary.  There was ongoing discussion among ICM leadership whether to accept the gift or not since it was not directly related to the ICM mission of equipping church leaders.  In the end, they did accept and we now see the results 18 months later.  The station, Radio Imani, has expanded its coverage from the startup and now reaches an estimated 7.2 million people with preaching, prayer and music.  They told us of many people who had called in requesting healing prayer who later called back to report total and complete healing.

Imani huja kwa kusikia neno la Kristo (Faith comes by hearing the Word of Christ)

From Bobbi:   wow!  After a rough start…(i.e….the  enemy did not want us here!)..it has become a joy.  My heart has had a special place for Sudan for 10-12 years now.  Two of the students are from there and escaped years ago to refugee camps here.  Elijah is now ministering in Sudan but his wife and children live here in Kenya for safety’s sake.  William (not the one John wrote of) but from Sudan…is the director of a refugee camp in northern Kenya.  Love talking to them.  Abdi is from Somalia and has read the Koran and Bible.  Interesting how he has found so many mistakes in the Koran (he counts them) and how he became a Christian because of reading the two Books and what he found.  Grace, of course, is only in the Bible.

It has rained but today is beautiful…Peter Mitimingi (who is with ICM in Tanzania working with James and Mary Kamau) is here and his wife due in today.  I am anxious to meet her as she was very ill when were in Nairobi in Nov 2004.  Mary Kamau …a dear friend is here…and we had a good talk for a long time yesterday.  Last night she made wonderful porridge.   She is going to teach me to milk a cow as they have many here on campus now.  So much to convey….but time to send this on.  Sending love to our family .  thank you all for the prayers. Bobbi
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Elijah Arok
Testimony

Sunday.  We awoke to rain, again, and were driven to church by Bernard and Lois Chege and their two children (Marci, 12 and Stanley, 9).  Chege is the chaplain, dean of students, and academic affairs at the seminary.  He is also pastoring a brand new church, only a couple of months old, about 5 km outside Kitale.  They already have a church building, a mud structure approximately 15 x 35 ft that sits in the middle of a field.  About 50-60 people in attendance including a dozen small children.  (Chege regretted that the rain kept others from coming.)  Men and women sat on opposite sides of the church on ten rows each of wooden benches.  Lots of great, spiritual singing accompanied by drums.  Bobbi and I were sitting up front behind the communion table with Pastor Chege and thoroughly enjoyed watching the enthusiastic singing and dancing of the small children.  I gave the message in English (Jesus’ values are upside down to the world’s values, Matt 5), which Chege translated into Swahili.  The people received us warmly and sent their greetings back to the Montreat Presbyterian Church.

Following the service, the Chege’s and we were driven to the home of a church member nearby and served a hearty lunch.  We then went back to see the Chege’s new home and for more chai and fellowship.  They have recently bought about a ¼ acre piece of land east of Kitale where we have visited before in other ICM staff member’s homes.  The property has an existing small mud home where they currently live while they are building a 3-bedroom brick home adjacent.  They made the bricks on the property and still have a large supply left for future structures.  The resourcefulness and self-sufficiency of the Africans never fails to amaze me! 

On the way to their home we passed four private secondary schools, the first of which is where their daughter, Marci attends.  She wants to be an orthopedic surgeon (Stanley aspires to be a cardiac surgeon).  Chege pointed out that next to the main school buildings was the first home of ICM in Kitale where he attended as a student.  It is now a part of his daughter’s school whose headmaster/principal is also an ICM graduate.

Five new classes arrive tomorrow including the seminary students, women enrolled in the counseling degree program, and teachers in the education BA program.  Classes will meet in all available rooms while a large tent has been set up on the soccer field to accommodate overflow.  This next week should be exciting!                    [Back to Top]

Yesterday was my birthday!  What a treat to celebrate it in Kenya!  Had a great discussion in class yesterday around persecution.  Many of these men and women have personally experienced severe persecution, especially our Sudanese and Somali students.  The discussion became quite heated at break time as the men gathered beside the classroom building.  The wonderful aspect of their debate is that although they can become quite animated and loud toward one another, at the end, they will laugh and embrace.  The issue was how to respond to Muslim aggression.  This is becoming a real problem here in Kenya and in other East African nations.  Most agreed that although Jesus tells us to turn the other cheek, if they families’ lives were threatened, they would respond.  Having spent some time thinking about this issue myself, I agree.

Last night we were invited to John “Babu” Mosonoik’s home for supper with his wife Caroline and their two children.  Babu is the director of youth and children’s ministry here at the campus and a wonderful, warm human being whom children gravitate to like flies on sugar.  Driving to his home outside Kitale, it seemed that every child we saw along the way recognized his car and waved and called out.  We had shared a meal in their home last year when we were here and it was wonderful to see how their children had grown.  Caroline was leaving the next morning at 4:00 a.m. on the bus to Nairobi to attend a staff wives’ conference so we made it a short night.  We discovered that Mosonik had attended a youth conference last May at Ridgecrest Conference Center, in Black Mountain!  What a small world we live in!  We wish that we had known that but will communicate better the next time so that we can return their hospitality.  His sweet prayer for us as we were leaving included thanks for allowing him to see where we live so that he can pray for us more effectively.

The campus is very busy with students in the teacher’s program, counseling programs, and new seminary students.  Yesterday, a new DSL system was hooked up on campus and I look forward to faster electronic speeds.  (Not working yet!  Africa Time!!)  One forgets what it was like to wait on dial-up.

Click on the mic in the right column to hear another moving testimony from a Sudanese student, a survivor of the wars in Southern Sudan.                      [Back to Top]

William Niareng
Testimony

Rain, rain, rain!  It rained all night and is raining now and it is cold!  We have not experienced this type of weather here before and did not bring warm clothes.  This is supposed to be the dry season and the temperature mild??  With a steady diet of rice and beans, Bobbi is already talking about how good a hamburger and ham and cheese sandwich will taste!

Very good session today looking at the leadership traits of Jesus.  Much thoughtful discussion on what humility looks like in a Christian leader.  This class is quickly becoming one of my favorites.  Unlike a traditional undergraduate class this group really likes to debate all the points and they bring many years of experience to the discussion.  I have found that we have a military chaplain and a police officer that also serves as a chaplain.  I asked today if any would like to give a testimony on how this class has impacted their concept of leadership and several made very moving recordings.  I will load these on the website when I have access to a broadband connection.

Visitors from Lakeview, Oregon in chapel today.  Sorry I did not bring my recorder to capture the worship.  We had twice the usual number of students there and were really blessed by all those wonderful African voices singing praise songs in English and Swahili.

I bought a SIM card and cell phone time (scratch card) from a local provider (CelTel) that covers all of East Africa so I am able to communicate within the region.  Text messaging is very inexpensive so that is most common.  We have been a bit in the dark as to our activities for our remaining time here until today.  A couple of hours ago I learned that we will return to Nairobi on Sunday and then fly out to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the following Friday.  (Bobbi and I will take two days for safari in the Masaai Mara Mon. and Tues.)  Saturday, 9 Dec, I will teach at an all-day conference in Dar for church leaders and preach on Sunday.  We will return to Nairobi and have a couple of days with Joyce and Onesmus Weru before leaving for the US on Wed, 13 Dec.  Please pray for my/our teaching and for our safe travel.                                                             [Back to Top]

Sunshine today!  Bobbi decided to do some wash as this looks like a day when clothes will dry on the line.  Working from two plastic containers under a faucet, one appreciates automatic washing machines!

Today I preached in the chapel—the place was packed with over 200 adult students from the seminary courses, counseling courses and teacher’s track.  The title was, “A Kingdom Lost,” and the scriptural reference 1 Samuel 8-15.  It is a story of a young man chosen by GOD to lead Israel who begins with a humble spirit and is elevated to leadership by the LORD for service.  After only two short years, he has become filled with pride and arrogance and the LORD declares him unworthy of kingship and removes the kingdom from his family.  It is a good lesson for leaders at all levels and the reaction from the students was very positive.

Following lunch, I did two more recorded interviews with students from my first class here in 2004.  I was greatly encouraged by their stories of how they have implemented the principles they learned here in their ministries.  Click on the mic in the right column to listen to these interviews.  To listen to more student testimonials, click here.

I did a review for the students prior to their exam on Saturday as Friday afternoon many of them are attending a wedding here.  Again, very positive feedback from them and, as other classes have done, they requested a copy of my book, Servant First!  We prayed together that the LORD would provide the means for them to acquire their own copy.                                                                                                                                                         [Back to Top]

Mary Kamau

Vitalis Gathatha

The visiting faculty were hosted tonight at one of the ICM staff member’s homes.  Butaki, our host, was hired 3 years ago as the IT guy and now oversees that function plus running the radio station.  Eight of us traveled in two cars about 3 km east of town to his home.  The six men and two women were welcomed to the Butaki home and seated around the “living room” on connecting coaches and overstuffed chairs covered with white embroidered cloth.  The room was a self-contained structure of masonry block walls about 10 x 20 ft open to a metal roof.  The “kitchen” was located somewhere through a door to an adjoining room.  As we would eat here, each person had a small table placed before them or access to a low, central table.  First we were served tea, soda, or juice while the youngest child, a son, came through and shook each ones’ hand while giving a small knee dip as a sign of respect.  The two daughters, who were not introduced, but we later deduced had probably prepared the meal as their mother had just arrived home from Nairobi about an hour before our arrival, cleaned up the tea cups and glasses.  As we moved to the serving table to fix our plates, one daughter held a pitcher of warm water that she proceeded to pour over our hands into a basin and then offered us a towel for drying.  The meal was bountiful and delicious: rice, ugali, pumpkin soup, peas and carrots, meat stew, squash, potatoes, and goat ribs, for the adventurous.  After the meal, we were offered tea and bananas or oranges.

The conversation before and during the meal was very interesting and ranged from cultural to political to academic issues.  Most, if not all of these men and women, teach at other colleges, seminaries, or universities as well as teaching here.  Everyone agreed that the ICM Seminary was the best private institution they knew of in terms of teaching materials, supplies and staff support.  Other places where they taught might not even have books and other teaching materials.  Teachers were expected to develop their own syllabi, prepare, copy, and distribute their notes to students, all at their own expense.  The talk was stimulating and punctuated with lots of laughter, as whenever Africans gather together.  After the plates were cleared away, booklets were distributed and we sang a number of hymns in English and Swahili.  Our last tune was “Rock of Ages.”  We first sang this in English and then in Swahili.  Then one of the men sang it in his mother tongue, which was followed by three others who sang in their mother tongues.  We closed with a time of prayer, which I was privileged to lead.  What a treat for us!          [Back to Top]

Sunday.  We leave Kitale by “speed taxi” for the eight-hour trip to Nairobi on the clearest day we’ve traveled that way.  The African blue sky was punctuated with puffy white clouds and the visibility unlimited.  Our route takes us southeast through the Great Rift Valley down the main highway that begins in Mombassa, on the Indian Ocean, and runs northwest through Nairobi to Kitale and then over to Uganda and Sudan.  Every truck in East Africa uses this road—and it shows.  The Kenyan railroad collapsed (due to corruption?) some time ago and just last month a private South African firm took over the rail system.  The Kenyans are hopeful that rail service will return and relieve some of the pressure on the surface roads.  We encounter monster potholes periodically until we turn off at the Eldama Ravine road, which has a good surface for many kilometers.

Views along the way: a Luhya circumcision ceremony (Bukusu) with a crowd of small boys bravely following behind some older women singing and dancing alongside the main highway at Moi’s Bridge waving wispy switches (to ensure none escape?)…husked maize drying on the ground on large tarps at roadside markets…Mt. Elgon to the north and the Charangani Hills to the east…a taped-off racecourse approaching Eldoret (ostrich or foot races?)…a decorated wedding car…the pungent smell of charcoal (makaa) being prepare in great earthen ovens…police check points…fields of teepeed dry maize stalks…roofless unfinished brick buildings…a truck and car wash at a stream bed (by hand, of course)…women in brightly colored dresses going to and from church…a bright green building advertising Safaricom next to a red building advertising CelTel in each small village…twin donkeys pulling an unattended two-wheel cart…rolling, green hills…cell towers…muddy roadside marketplaces…2 Chinese men standing along the highway (surveying for road repair?)…girls holding out bottles of local honey for sale…a forest of cactus trees…lunch at Hotel Kunste in Nakuru…lots of children with parents at a picnic sponsored by one of the banks…bags of salt for sale from Lake Alamatita…baboons sitting on rocks along side the highway observing the passing traffic…zebras grazing near the road between Nakuru and Nairobi…a forest of yellow fever trees…cactus fences at the Delamere Farm…spectacular views from high atop the escarpment overlooking the Great Rift Valley…TRAFFIC in Nairobi.                                      [Back to Top]

Our flight to Maasai Mara departed from the small, domestic Wilson Airport outside Nairobi, The Kenya Airways aircraft was a single engine, high wing, Cessna which carried about 12 passengers (how did they all fit?) and is the perfect “bush” plane.  We cruised west for about 45 minutes at 11,500’ in beautifully blue sky dodging puffy clouds just below our flight level.  We were informed that ours would be the third stop on the flight.  Our first landing was on a small dirt strip where the departing passengers were met by representatives from their lodge who whisked them off in several Range Rovers.  Since the next two stops were only minutes away, the pilot asked if anyone objected to flying low level.  Receiving thumbs up from us, he proceeded to lift off and cruise at 500-1000’ enroute the other two stops.  What a view!  The green savanna of the Maasai Mara extends as far as the eye can see.  I was ready to sign on with Kenya Airways!

Our next stop was like the first and then ours within minutes of the second takeoff.  Exiting the small aircraft, we were greeted by representatives from the Mara Safari Lodge.  The Lodge is located in the lee of the Itong Range, in the northern section of the Maasai Mara National Park.  The Mara is the Kenyan extension of the Serengeti National Park to the south in Tanzania.  While we waited for our small bit of luggage to be off loaded, we looked over the “Passenger Lounge,” an open-sided building about 12 x 12 ft and the “Duty Free Shop,” a much smaller, dilapidated building stuffed with curios.  Shortly, we were driven off in a Range Rover to the Lodge, only minutes away.

We were greeted there by the wonderful staff with cool hand towels and glasses of fresh mango juice.  Later, we were taken to our lodging, a tent sitting right above the Mara River.  Our “tent” home was outfitted beautifully with twin, canopied beds, a wardrobe, dresser and a beautiful private bathroom.  Our small front deck had two deck chairs and a small table where we enjoyed early morning coffee.  We were soon to discover that many hippos lived in the river just below our tent as they provided a wakeup call early each morning with their loud grunting.  Each evening, our attendant would bring us a hot water bottle and tuck it into our beds.

Three game drives were available each day.  We took advantage of one the first day, two the second, and skipped the early morning drive at 6:30 to sleep in and prepare for our departure at 10:00 a.m.  We had visited Nairobi, Nakuru and Amboseli National Parks on our previous trips so we had already seen most of the big five animals.  The hippopotamus here made number four.  Unfortunately we did not see number five (the leopard) on this trip either, although we tried. 

East Africa has had an abundance of rain and the savanna plains were very wet with standing water and difficult to navigate even with the 4 x 4 vehicles.  However, our guide, Evans, proved to be a knowledgeable, expert driver as well as an authority on the wildlife and fauna of the Mara.  We saw lots of black mud but only got stuck once and that on the first afternoon.  Each vehicle is radio equipped so help was soon summoned and eventually three lodge vehicles managed to get each other out of the mud.

The Maasai Mara was covered with green grass and mostly denuded of trees.  These could only be found around the streams and water holes, along with the ucrea bushes—a favorite of elephants—that dotted the savanna.  The few, isolated trees viewed on the skyline were generally desert palms that had been “grazed” up to the point where elephant and giraffe could not reach.

We saw many different wild game including: eland, Thompson’s gazelle, Grant’s gazelle, hartebeest, lion, silver-backed jackal, giraffe, white stork, mongoose, baboon, African buffalo, wildebeest, topi, hilax, impala, warthog, zebra, hyaena, did dik, waterbuck and one monitor lizard that stopped up to see us at our tent.

We both agreed that this had been our best vacation since our honeymoon in Hawaii 37 years ago and we hope to return again one day.  Arriving relaxed back in Nairobi via a Kenya Airways 50-passenger, 4-engine turboprop, we felt like we’d received the royal treatment and were ready for the next phase of our trip.  Off to Dar es Salaam!        [Back to Top]                           

I’m glad that James Kamau strongly suggested we fly to Tanzania rather than take the 12-14 hour drive in the Weru’s car, as the views were spectacular and the Kenya Airways flight refreshing.  Our flight approached Dar es Salaam from the north and we parallel the coast for several miles.  We had a bird's-eye view of the muddy rivers dumping into the Indian Ocean and mixing with the darkening aqua blue waters.  Standing just off shore (actually about 20 miles away) was the island of Zanzibar, former home to the Sultan of Zanzibar and ruler of Eastern Africa. We could clearly see Stone Town sitting on a point of land aimed at Dar where the infamous slave markets traded human lives over the course of too many decades.  On final approach over the city, I stared down on countless uncompleted buildings, residential and commercial.  It seemed that for each building with a roof, there were two with just the masonry walls rising up from the sandy soil.  Landing at Mwalimu Julius K. Nyere Airport (the socialist former president; the Swahili word means “Teacher”), we were greeted by a blast of hot, humid air.  We later discovered that Dar was mercifully cooler than normal during our weekend stay.  For this we thank God.

Dar es Salaam is a city of great contrasts, as is Nairobi.  You can travel through streets of beautiful buildings and residences and suddenly drop off the macadam onto a dirt road nearly impassible with ruts and holes surrounded by block-walled, tin-roofed buildings (and not all with roofs).  This great port city has many graceful, old buildings (mostly government offices) facing the harbor.  A huge Lutheran church dominates one block on this stretch of the waterfront street and most, if not all, of these building were constructed during the British colonial era.  Go one block back and you find yourself in a gritty commercial district with sky-high prices on everything.

James and Mary Kamau, ICM Country Directors for Tanzania, offered to put us up in their home in Mbeizi, a 45-60 minute drive from downtown (due to traffic not mileage).  We loved being in their beautiful coastal, East African home and getting to fellowship with them and their youngest son, Emanuel (Num num), who is home from boarding school for the Christmas break.  This was a special treat for us and we quickly fell in love with Num num (age 18), who kept us laughing 24/7 with non-stop jokes and riddles.

Our meeting Saturday was held at the Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church in Dar es Salaam.  Although the turnout was smaller than James had hoped for (we did not give them much notice) we made some very good contacts and those attending asked us to please come back next year when they could plan for a large gathering of church and business leaders.

Later that afternoon, James and Mary took us to the ICM Seminary in Dar.  They have established the campus in a very large, rented house (which contains their offices, dorm rooms, library, dining hall and computer lab in its own compound.  A US mission team had constructed a classroom building on the compound but they have found it to be very hot and are looking at alternative ways to cool it during the day.  The ICM school is the only Christian seminary in this sprawling city of 3,000,000 people and is strategically poised to have a tremendous impact on Eastern Africa.  They have only been in full operation for about one year and have a single class proceeding through the five-year program.  (One of the students was my interpreter at the Sunday service—and what a great job he did even duplicating hand gestures and voice inflections!)  They hope to begin adding another class in the near future once they can augment their small staff.

Sunday was a special day.  We attended St. Columba’s Presbyterian Church in East Africa where I was the guest preacher.  The service was beautiful and packed out and included a confirmation service and communion (they use real wine here!).  The preacher was mediocre but the interpreter great so the message on servant leadership seemed to be appreciated.  The pastor (a young Kenyan man) and some of the elders were quite pleased to learn that we may put on a leadership seminar next year in Dar and requested that James notify them as soon as possible of the dates so that they can mark them on their calendars.

We took a drive after church through town and happened upon a huge bazaar on a park downtown offering East African clothing, curios, food, health-care products and a wide variety of various other goods.  Fortunately for James and me, it started to rain soon after we’d gotten there or we’d have never made it to our late lunch.  Leaving downtown, we drove along the beach road past beautiful embassy residences to the Sea Cliff Hotel and connecting mini-mall.  From the beach, we could look out toward Zanzibar and see several dhows with their oversized triangular sails that have been sailing these waters for centuries.  Further out and snubbed on their anchor cables were modern freighters, mostly container ships, waiting for on-load and off-load in the harbor.  This was a beautiful place of small shops, water fountains and open-air food establishments.  We ate at a very American steak, ribs, and seafood restaurant.  James told us that he usually brings American missionaries here to give them a feeling of home.  It worked for us! 

The surrounding shops were interesting, well-stocked and expensive.  It was apparent that they cater to the international community especially the embassy and NGO crowd.  The mall itself reminded me of a Southern California establishment in its architecture and layout.  We strolled through the gorgeous hotel located on high coral cliffs overlooking the Indian Ocean and breathed in the cool, ocean air.  A wedding reception was being setup on the green facing the ocean under and circular white tent festooned with white and pink table clothes and chair coverings.  I wondered: How they would anchor all the food and drinks against the strong onshore breeze?  Memories of Newport, RI, and the Cliff Walk flashed into my mind.

The next morning we left 3 ½ hours early for the airport and arrived with plenty of time.  On to the last leg in Nairobi.    [Back to Top]

Last night Onesmus and Joyce Weru took us to the Village Market mall near the huge American Embassy here in Nairobi.  This is a very beautiful, Southern California-style, three level, outdoor arcade of multiple shops, waterfalls and pools, stone, and a very good and diverse food court.  It is strategically located near the US Embassy and the UN compound and most of its customers appeared to be non-Africans.  Only the high level of security would distinguish it from it American twin.  Bobbi had a hay day shopping for Christmas gifts and the prices were reasonable for high quality products.

We learned last night that today we are to be the guest presenters at an all-day retreat that Joyce is leading for a group of 12 young-married couples from their church.  The subject is communication between married couples.  With not much time to prepare, we plan to play-act, tell some stories, use humor, and hopefully convey some lessons-learned over a marriage of 37 years.

(Later)  The two-hour presentation went very smoothly—it even appeared that we had planned it that way!  We both prayed that the Holy Spirit would take charge of the presentation—and He did!  We had a lot of fun doing it and the couples asked some good questions.  Afterwards, at lunch, we received some encouraging feedback.  Onesmus dropped us off at a nearby gift house where we did some last minute Christmas shopping as they finished up the seminar.  At 5:30 p.m., we all drove in to Karen and met Greg and Deb Snell for dinner at the new Java House there.

The Snells are long-term missionaries with ICM and lived for several years in the Karen district outside Nairobi.  They have hosted us for our transit through Nairobi the past three years.  They are in the process of building their retirement home in Naivasha, about an hour north of Nairobi, and return each quarter to supervise and plan.  We visited the property with them during our last trip here. 

Last year the Snells were seconded to Rwanda to act as the on-scene coordinators for the Purpose Driven Ministries PEACE Plan in Rwanda.  President Paul Kagame has pledged that Rwanda will become a Purpose-Driven Country following the model outlined in the Purpose-Driven Life and Purpose-Driven Church (Rick Warren).  Saddleback Church, in Southern California, has taken on the challenge of assisting Mr. Kagame’s government in implementing the PEACE Plan nationwide.  The implications for the future of this small, central African country and its neighbors—and even the continent—with its success are staggering.  [Back to Top]

Kwa heri na Mungu awabiriki!  (Goodbye and God bless!)   [Back to Top]